Web Design All-in-One for Dummies®

Chapter 2: Defining the Audience

In This Chapter

⻬ Performing market research

⻬ Gathering information on the target audience’s computer use

⻬ Assessing a site’s competition

⻬ Understanding how to characterize a target audience

⻬ Determining benefits to site visitors

A

fter the planning phase of your Web project, as explained in Book I,

Chapter 1, you should have enough information to successfully move

into the contract phase, where you estimate fees for the project and then

draft and submit a proposal to the client.

When the client gives verbal approval of the proposal, you can write up an

official contract and present it to the client for signatures. If you’re in need

of a sample contract, you might want to start with the example shown at

www.premiumwebdesign.com/contract.htm. After you create your own

copy, you can modify it as needed to suit your individual projects.

At the same time as you receive the signed contract from your

client, you can also collect financial retainers or deposits

along with any content or materials needed to begin devel-

opment of the site. Try to get at least a 25 percent

deposit from the client before you do any work. This

shows good faith on your part for doing the work

and good faith on the client’s part that she is seri-

ous about having you do the work and is willing to

pay part of the fees to retain your services.

After you get the contract and deposit, you can

safely enter the design phase, which is where this

chapter begins. Identifying the target audience

(the first part of the design phase) is an information-

gathering process that helps you make a Web site’s

design effective.

In this chapter, you define your target audience by finding out every-

thing you can about the target audience members — what their computer

usage and Internet surfing habits are, where they fall demographically, what

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Defining the Target Audience

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their buying preferences are, and what special interests they may have. You

also spend a little time doing your own informal market research by taking a

good look at the competition to give your Web project an extra edge.

Defining the Target Audience

The target audience for a Web site is the ideal group of visitors site owners

hope to attract in an effort to increase Web traffic and thereby improve

sales. In other words, they are the intended visitors of a Web site, as defined

by their common interests, habits, and demographics. This ideal group

might be of a certain age or gender; come from a particular part of a neigh-

borhood, city, county, state, region, or country; and have very specific inter-

ests as well as particular likes and dislikes.

To determine these and other characteristics, you and your client should

perform certain tasks, including performing a bit of informal (or formal)

market research, gathering Internet usage statistics, and taking a look at

what the competition is doing so that you can create a more attractive

design for your site and ensure that the site includes the relevant content

that the target audience is likely to seek.

Doing informal market research

Market research is a type of research performed when information about a

particular group of people needs to be gathered as an aid to making strate-

gic marketing decisions. Whether performed in a formal or informal manner,

market research is one of the best ways to begin the design phase of any

Web site project.

With your particular Web design project in mind, be sure to complete the

following three tasks, from the checklist shown in Figure 2-1, to make the

most of your market research time:

⻬ Gather general information about the computer usage and Internet

browsing habits of Internet users. This knowledge about the people

using the Internet can greatly help you make important decisions about

the site’s design measurements, organization, layout, color palette,

image usage, navigation scheme, and accessibility features.

⻬ Find out what other businesses in

the same field have already done

with their Web sites. By looking at

competitors’ Web sites, you can

quickly assess what was already

done poorly and take steps to

avoid those same mistakes. In

addition, you can find out a lot

Figure 2-1: Create your own marketing

research checklist to gather information

about your project.

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